“Great difficulty has hitherto been experienced in seeing the same amount of front sight each time aim is taken, unless the base of the sight is sufficiently undercut to form a ‘bead-sight’; such undercutting being, however, detrimental, as it weakens the ‘sight’ and renders it very liable to injury, and is not permissible in Bisley revolver competitions. The object of my invention is, therefore, to overcome this difficulty, and to this end I make the ‘sight’ of metal, horn, wood, or other hard substance, with a strong, wide base, preferably of the ‘barleycorn’ or triangular section.
“The face of the upper part of the ‘sight’ facing the marksman (as much of it as it is desirable to see in aiming) is made vertical, or inclined slightly towards the marksman, so as to cause it to appear black, as if in shadow. The visible part of the sight below the face inclines forward from the marksman, and downward, so as to reflect the light and enable the face of the sight to be at once distinguished by its difference of shade from the lower part. It may be polished or plated to assist in reflecting the light, while as a contrast, the vertical face is cross-filed, or ‘roughed,’ or may be hollowed out so as to be in shadow, and give it a ‘dead’ black appearance.
“In the drawing, I have shown what I consider the best means of carrying this out. Fig. 1 is a side view, full size, of a portion of a revolver barrel fitted with my improved ‘front sight.’
“Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are sections of the barrel at A B, showing two forms which the sight may assume in section, one having straight sides, the other concave. I show in Figs. 4 and 4*, on a larger scale, for the sake of clearness, a side and plan view of the sight shown in Fig. 1, and in Fig. 5 a modification of this shape. Figs. 6 and 7 are end views, showing two sectional forms of the sight, and corresponding in size with Figs. 4 and 5. In Figs. 1 and 4, it will be seen that a is the vertical face of the sight, which is designed to present a dark appearance to the marksman; and b is the polished, inclined surface, which takes a rounded form. In the modification, Fig. 5, the face a is slightly inclined towards the marksman, and the bright or polished surface b takes the form of a flat incline.”
CHAPTER V
LEARNING TO SHOOT
It is assumed that you have procured an accurate pistol, properly sighted. It is best to use a single-shot pistol or revolver as an automatic pistol cannot well be used as a single loader and for a beginner is very dangerous with the magazine charged.
First, make sure that it is unloaded. Always do this before handling a pistol.